A.D.D.

We were talking about his neighbor who accidentally burned down his 5M house. My boss said (about his neighbor), “He’s ADD like me. ADD people burn down the house.”

I’m not ADD, at least I have no proper diagnosis of it, and, though sorely uneducated on the subject, if I had to guess, I’d say I’m the complete opposite of ADD. I have a laser-like focus that keeps me on task to the point where I am hard to interrupt. (There is a caveat to this: If I am bored, or uninterested, then I appear to be the ditz of the universe, who, like Dory, sees all sorts of shiny things.)

A recent example: The house behind me, 2 doors down, 2 weeks ago, caught on fire. In my small town that’s an evening of excitement, so the entire neighborhood was standing in my yard watching the goings on. (All so engrossed with the dramatic event they missed my pretty my roses. Seems I’m not the only one with laser focus.) There were also several firetrucks with lights flashing parked in my yard.

I missed the house burning down.

I was lying in bed reading a newsletter from Blooms of Bressingham on the subject of their new perennials. I never heard the firetrucks, never saw the lights, or smelled smoke. I did hear voices outside, but that was not enough to interrupt my thoughts on the Moonshine yarrow that was introduced in 1950 by the Blooms, and is still the best yarrow on the market today, and to my thinking on that fated night, would make a great companion plant with my Walker’s Low catmint. It was only when I got up for a drink, that I saw the lights, and realized there’d been a fire. I missed the entire thing. People were heading home and firetrucks were backing out of my driveway.

Walker’s Low Catmint

Here’s what I said to my boss. “ADDs may burn the house down, but people like me? We don’t even know the house is on fire.”

Oh the analogies.

Why do folks with ADD get so much attention? And, someone please tell me. What is it we’re all supposed to be paying attention too, anyway?

I have a new granddaughter (she’ll be a month old tomorrow). I haven’t met her because I am working 24/7. No, that is not an exaggeration. I work 7 days a week.

My best friend is going through the toughest ordeal of her life. Chemo and radiation are a daily routine for her, hoping to shrink the tumors in her brain. She’s an hour away and I work, worried if this next paycheck will be enough to pay the bills.

If I am not mistaken, every niece and nephew I have is graduating between the end of May and the middle of June. I will miss all of them.

My garden is divine right now. The roses are climbing over the white picket fence, iris are blooming, gaura is staring to bloom up their wispy stalks, and I know this because I see it as I drive by it on my way to work.

I’m burning down the house, and I’m not ADD.

When I was in the 5th grade my teacher scolded me, and called my parents for a parent/teacher conference because I looked bored. Oh man, did I get in trouble. Cinthia, are you not paying attention class? Why do you look bored? Because I was, and no of course, I wasn’t paying attention. But, to appease those who could ground me, I practiced the art of looking interested in the bathroom mirror. The moral of this story?

We may look like we’re paying attention, but are we?

I am unaware if my boss ever burned down a house. I do know that he has built a very successful garden center that rivals the garden centers of England. And, while I may have missed a few barn burnings, I am getting the idea, you don’t have to be ADD to burn down the house. Clueless works too.